Sea of Stars is pure RPG comfort food once you push past its slow start

theverge.com:

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Sea of Stars is basically a modern-day SNES RPG. I had a sense that would be the case going in: it has pixel art clearly inspired by 16-bit classics, pits a ragtag group of adventurers against evil forces, uses a clever turn-based battle system, and is filled with stunning music (including a few tracks from Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda). But I was glad my hunch was right. I devoured Sea of Stars in a little over a week, and each time I booted it up, I felt like I was playing the type of old-school RPG I would have spent afternoons with as a kid.

A lot of that nostalgia came from Sea of Stars’ gorgeous pixel art, which looks similar to games like Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger but with an incredible amount of modern-day detail. Leaves sway slightly as if moved by a real breeze. Water ripples as people run through it. When main characters talk, their text boxes have expressive faces that make each of them feel memorable. Hyper-detailed bosses can take up half the screen with their extra appendages or giant heads. Every time I got to a new area, I couldn’t wait to see what visual delights were ahead.

Exploring those locations is a blast. The game’s areas and dungeons are intricately designed, with crisscrossing pathways, ladders, cliffs, and platforms that are stuffed with secrets, puzzles, and treasure chests. (There are also a bunch of block-pushing puzzles, but thankfully, I didn’t find them to be too grating.) There are no random encounters,